Keys to finding local community food sources to prevent Vitamin A deficiency: What foods are available and how much vitamin a do they contain?

Keys to understanding consumption patterns of vulnerable groups

Keys to beliefs and perceptions about food

Keys to cultural, ecological and socioeconomic factors that constrain consumption of Vitamin A-rich food and prevention of deficiency

Keys to explanations and understandings of Vitamin A deficiency symptoms

Looking to the next steps: From ethnography to intervention design

Overview

The root of the problem of vitamin A deficiency is lack of
sufficient vitamin A in community food supplies. While all members of families
in communities where vitamin A is limited are potentially at risk of deficiency,
infants, young children, pregnant, and lactating women are the most vulnerable.
In order to understand how food systems can be supported to ensure adequate
intake for all the population, the environmental and sociocultural mechanisms
through which food is provided must also be understood. This understanding
begins with answers to a set of basic questions: what vitamin A-containing foods
are available? What are the nutrient levels in these foods? How much is consumed
by the individuals who are vulnerable to deficiency? Why are these foods
selected or not used? How do people identify and treat symptoms of vitamin A
deficiency? The answers to these questions are the product of determinants that
reside in the physical and social environment, broadly defined, and in culture.
Answering these questions at the local level is a necessary step in the
development of interventions aimed at remedial actions and prevention of vitamin
A deficiency.

In the sections that follow, we begin with some comments about the
overall performance of the protocol as a field tool. We then review findings
from the studies in relation to the "key questions" to which the protocol is
directed. This is not intended to be a definitive analysis of the dietary,
environmental, and cultural features of the five sites. The purpose is to
summarize the types of information that are produced through the application of
the
procedures.